head to head · open source
Joplin vs mindforger
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars, 6,391 forks, 658 open issues and last shipped today. mindforger has 2,724 stars, 173 forks, 625 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Joplin leads on adoption by 1,992% (56,994 vs 2,724 stars). Joplin is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; mindforger is written in C++ under GPL-2.0. Joplin has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, mindforger 6%. Joplin was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Joplin | mindforger | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.4K | ⑂ 173 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Joplin if
- You weight community size — 57K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick mindforger if
- You want the mindforger feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and mindforger fits your workflow better
About Joplin
Joplin is a free, open source note taking and to do application, which can handle a large number of notes organised into notebooks. The notes are searchable, can be copied, tagged and modified either from the applications directly or from your own text editor. The notes are in Markdown format. Notes exported from Evernote can be imported into Joplin, including the formatted content (which is converted to Markdown), resources (images, attachments, etc.) and complete metadata (geolocation, updated time, created time, etc.). Plain Markdown files can also be imported. Joplin is "offline first", which means you…
read the full Joplin overview →
About mindforger
Thinking Notebook & Markdown Editor Are you drowning in information , but starving for knowledge ? Where do you keep your private remarks like ideas, personal plans, gift tips, how tos, dreams, business vision, finance strategy, auto coaching notes? Loads of documents, sketches and remarks spread around the file system, cloud, web and Post it notes? Are you afraid of your knowledge privacy ? Are you able to find them once you create them? Do you know how are they mutually related when you read or write them? No? Thinking Notebook MindForger is human mind inspired personal knowledge management tool. Markdown…
read the full mindforger overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Joplin or mindforger more popular?
Joplin has 56,994 GitHub stars and mindforger has 2,724. Joplin has the larger community by that measure.
Are Joplin and mindforger free?
Both are open source. Joplin has no licence declared in this registry, and mindforger is licensed under GPL-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Joplin and mindforger?
Joplin is written in TypeScript and mindforger in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Joplin or mindforger?
Choose Joplin if you want the larger community (56,994 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose mindforger if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.